Pre-history and Early History

In Puget Sound the archaeological record begins
about 9,000 years ago. Along the shoreline of the sound,
many sites have been identified. Villages were typically located
along rivers or marine transportation routes. Artifacts representing
daily life include a variety of hunting, fishing and food processing
tools, as well as bone and shell implements for fabric and basket
weaving.

Fish provided the most valued source of food
for Puget Sound peoples. They used all species of salmon. They caught
salmon by trolling, by netting from canoes, and by using weirs and
nets in rivers and streams. Animals like deer, elk and bear, were
nearly as important. Plants, too, offered an abundant source of
variety to local diets. Seaweed, grasses, ferns, acorns, roots,
and berries provided food, medicines, and materials for making household
articles. Native peoples used Western red cedar trees for houses,
boxes, baskets, and canoes.

The Tacoma Narrows is part of the traditional
territory of Puyallup people. Puyallup villages stretched
from Vashon Island and Commencement Bay to Wapato Creek and along
the Puyallup River.

The Puyallup's built villages near the
Current Tacoma Narrows Bridge. One was called swh’LOH-tseed,
located at the head of Wollochet Bay about five miles south of Gig
Harbor. Another, called TWAH-well-kawh and located at the mouth
of a stream at Gig Harbor, included six buildings in the mid-1800s.
On nearby Maury Island stood the village known as tsoo-GWAH-lehlh.
It featured a large building, about 50 feet by 200 feet, originally
built as a fort to guard against retaliatory measures from the nearby
Duwamish people. The Puyallups also lived in three villages near
the present-day town of Burton. These were called koh-kohl-chehch,
(“madrone”), kwee-LOOT, (“over there”),
and AHL-ahl-ehl.

European explorers in May 1792 first
came to the region now known as the Tacoma Narrows. On the 20th
of May a small group from the British expedition of Captain George
Vancouver passed through the Narrows. One of them, a botanist named
Archibald Menzies, scribbled his thoughts onto paper, and these
became the earliest recorded words about the Narrows. Menzies wrote
in his notebook, "a most Rapid Tide from the northward hurried
us so fast past the shore that we could scarce land." Soon,
Vancouver named the southern part of the great complex waterway
after his lieutenant, Peter Puget, who led most of its mapping.
Only later did the name get applied to the entire area, which we
now call "Puget Sound."

By the mid-1850s, the smallpox and violence
associated with Euro-American settlement in the Northwest had drastically
affected native people. In 1854 negotiations between Puyallup, Nisqually,
and Squaxin Island people and the United States government resulted
in the Treaty of Medicine Creek. The agreement forced native peoples
to abandon most of their villages in southern Puget Sound and to
relocate to reservations. But, the poor quality of reservation lands
dissatisfied many of them. The conflict became violent. In 1855
and 1856 the federal sent government Army troops to contain the
Puyallups and others. The incidents became known as the Puget Sound
Indian Wars. After the wars, first in 1857 then in 1873, the United
States government expanded the Puyallup Reservation to 18,032 acres.

View of the Tacoma Narrows,
where Puget Sound becomes a channel some 4,600 feet wide. WSDOT

The Setting

In western Washington state the blue waters
of Puget Sound extend southward from the Strait of Juan de
Fuca about 90 miles. West of the Sound lies the Olympic Peninsula,
some 80 miles wide. The Peninsula is a natural wonderland, topped
by great snow-capped mountains (the highest is Mt. Olympus at 10,000
feet). The land is home to wandering deer, elk, bear, and mountain
goats.

Before there was a bridge, travelers
to the Peninsula faced a long, slow, and expensive journey. The
only routes were by highway around the southern end of Puget Sound
through Olympia (the state capital), or by ferry from Point Defiance
to the west of Tacoma. By the late 1920s, with more and more people
driving automobiles, the demand grew for a better route to the Peninsula.
At the same time, many citizens came to see the ferry system as
"'antiquated" as well as expensive.

The Narrows became a logical site for
a bridge. There, near Tacoma, the Sound becomes a narrow channel
a little less than a mile wide.

But, it was also a difficult place to
build a bridge. The water is over 200 feet deep. Swift, treacherous
tides moving at over 8.5 miles per hour (12.5 feet per second) sweep
through the channel four times a day. A bridge at the Tacoma Narrows
was long proposed, but challenging to build. The sheer cost of construction
became a barrier to getting a bridge built.

Tacoma lies in southern Puget Sound where
the Puyallup River enters Commencement Bay. The city is surrounded
by abundant natural resources, principally timber.

The city evolved through the 1870s and 1880s
into a thriving industry town and incorporated in 1884, becoming
the seat of Pierce County. After the Northern Pacific Railway reached
Tacoma in 1873, the city became a commercial hub for nearby lumbering,
coal mining, and flour milling. Across the tide flats east of the
city, warehouses and grain elevators sprang up in great numbers.
Other enterprises sprouted, including a salmon cannery and machine
shops. Since the turn of the 20th century, Tacoma has been a major
West Coast port. The one-time "lumber capital of the U. S."
remains a center for the regional forest products industry and is
one of the leading industrial and commercial cities in the Northwest.

Gig Harbor lies just across the Narrows
about 6 miles. The quaint fishing village on a scenic inlet thrives
on tourism and boasts a postcard-like view of Mount Rainier.

The Idea of Bridging the Narrows, 1888-1926

First to suggest the notion of bridging the
Narrows was John G. Shindler a local rancher. Shindler passed
through the Narrows in 1888 (or perhaps 1889) on a steamboat. He
pointed to the bluffs on either side and said to boat's commander,
"Captain, some day you will see a bridge over these Narrows."

In 1889 the Northern Pacific Railroad
briefly contemplated a Narrows Bridge. A clerk in the NP Land Department
proposed the link (probably a trestle, rather than a bridge) between
Tacoma and Port Orchard, then the site of a proposed Puget Sound
Naval Shipyard. But, NP officials had no economic incentive to justify
the effort. The idea faded for over thirty years.

The first real promoters of a Narrows Bridge
were neighborhood improvement groups on the north side of Tacoma.
In 1923 the Federated Improvement Clubs of Tacoma launched a campaign
for a Narrows Bridge. They proposed to span the Narrows between
Point Defiance and the Gig Harbor area. In late December 1923 C.
F. Mason, a realtor and President of the Federated Improvement Clubs
told reporters that the group had been working on the project "for
some months."

The next step toward a Narrows span came
three years later. In 1926 the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce endorsed
a campaign for a bridge across the Narrows. Heading the effort was
Llewellyn Evans, superintendent of Tacoma City Utilities Department
and president of the local Good Roads Association.

First Crossing – By Ferry

That same year, 1926, Pierce County granted
a 10-year contract for ferry service across the Narrows to Mitchell
Skansie. The contract guaranteed Skansie that his ferry service
would be granted immunity from competition. By the early 1927, Skansie
began service with his Washington Navigation Company. That guarantee
of "no competition" became a significant impediment to
building a bridge. The president of Tacoma's Chamber of Commerce
in 1938, Thad Stevenson, put it this way: "Every time we would
get started with some financing, that contract would come up and
we would have to include its purchase in the total, which was always
too high as it was."

Early Efforts For a Bridge, 1927-37

Between 1927 and 1937 civic groups in
Tacoma and surrounding areas made numerous efforts to get a bridge
built over the Narrows. These efforts are summarized below.

In June 1927 the Roads Committee of the
Tacoma Chamber of Commerce estimated that a bridge over the Narrows
would cost between $3 million and $10 million. Tacoma newspapers
gladly trumpeted their support. Local editors offered publicity,
and momentum slowly began to build.

Several proposals for a bridge came forward
from local and nationally prominent engineers. Notable were
Joseph B. Strauss from Chicago (later builder of the Golden Gate
Bridge), H. H. Meyers of New York, and a local civic activist and
realtor, Charles A. Cook. In 1928 Cook suggested an $8 million steel
cantilever bridge for the Narrows similar to the Carquinez Strait
Bridge, then being built near Berkeley, California.

This sketch appeared in Tacoma area newspapers in 1928 as the first
proposed bridge type for crossing the Narrows. The image shows the
Carquinez Straight Bridge, a steel cantilever structure then under
construction in California. WSDOT

In November of 1928 the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce
hired noted bridge architect David B. Steinman of the New York firm
Robinson and Steinman to conduct preliminary work for the proposed
bridge. Over the next two years Steinman spent $5,000 on a preliminary
survey, layout and designs, estimates of traffic, architectural
drawings, and reports.

Tacoma's 6th Avenue Commercial Club rallied
public support. In late December 1928 the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce
approved proposed legislation to provide a state franchise for building
a bridge at the Narrows. City of Tacoma leaders and Pierce County
Board of Commissioners formally requested Washington State officials
to construct a Narrows bridge.

By the spring of 1929, the State Legislature
passed a law authorizing a Tacoma Narrows Bridge. At the
same time, David B. Steinman's design for the bridge appeared in
local newspapers.

This 1929 photo by M.D. Boland has a superimposed sketch of the
proposed Narrows bridge by David B. Steinman. GHPHSM

Two years passed with little activity.
The Tacoma Chamber of Commerce decided that Steinman's firm was
"not sufficiently active" and moved on to other ideas.

The next bridge proposal came in 1931
from Tacoma City engineers. They suggested a steel cantilever truss
bridge that would carry railroad traffic as well as motor vehicles
and pedestrians. The price tag of $12 million shocked almost everyone.
The costly idea got more ridicule than support.

1931 Steel cantilever bridge proposed by Tacoma City engineers WSDOT

Hope surged again in November 1932. The
Tacoma Chamber of Commerce hired E. M. Chandler of Olympia to build
a bridge at the Narrows. Chandler proposed a $3 million suspension
bridge. Chandler requested support from the newly created federal
Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). The loan would be repaid
by tolls collected from bridge users. But, the RFC refused. Too
few cars and trucks would use the bridge, they said. And, the cost
to buy out Mitchell Skansie's ferry system remained too high. One
of the experts hired to review Chandler's proposal was a noted New
York engineer, Leon F. Moisseiff.

Chandler announced a new plan a month
later. Now, he proposed a 7,000-foot long steel cantilever bridge.
But, the idea attracted little support at first. A year passed.
Then, in late 1933 the United States Navy and Army Departments declared
their support for the proposed Narrows Bridge. The saw a definite
military value of the project, because it would link the Bremerton
Naval Shipyard and Fort Lewis.

Then, Pierce County government leaders became
encouraged by possible support from the new Public Works Agency
(PWA). The PWA provided federal funds under President Roosevelt's
"New Deal" for public major construction projects, like
a bridge over the Tacoma Narrows. Pierce County applied for a grant
to build Chandler's steel cantilever bridge at the Narrows. To their
disappointment, the federal bureaucracy took no action.

In early 1936 the United States War Department
approved a revised application by Pierce County Commissioners
for a bridge. The new plan called for a suspension bridge to cost
an estimated $4 million. Part (45 percent) of the money was to come
from a PWA grant and the remainder (55 percent) to be paid for by
Pierce County public utility bonds.

By late March 1936 Tacoma newspapers announced
that the New York engineering firm of Moran and Proctor had prepared
preliminary plans for a suspension bridge at the Narrows to cost
$4,089,091.

In March 1936 the New York engineering firm of Moran and Proctor
prepared this preliminary design for a suspension bridge over the
Tacoma Narrows WSDOT

Now, the "Narrows Bridge Gang" took
up the cause. This coalition of Tacoma community groups and
businessmen, launched a statewide letter writing campaign to persuade
President Roosevelt to support PWA approval of a Narrows Bridge.
The "gang" included members of the Sixth Avenue Business
Men's Club, the Gig Harbor Improvement Club, the Young Men's Business
Club, the K Street Boosters, and other bridge supporters in the
area. The group met weekly from January 1936 until November 30,
1938.

The Need – Building a Case For a Bridge

The automobile exerted a significant influence
on American society in the 1920s and increasingly in the early 1930s.
Citizens demanded better roads and more bridges. They also wanted
fewer ferries and public (not private) ownership of transportation
facilities.

Tacoma civic leaders saw the need to
reduce driving distances between Tacoma and towns on the Olympic
Peninsula as a compelling argument. The table below gives an idea
of just how much difference a bridge could make.

DRIVING DISTANCES AND TIME VIA AND AROUND 1940 NARROWS BRIDGE

Route

via Olympia

via Narrows Bridge

Tacoma to Gig Harbor

107 miles

8 miles

2 hours 10 minutes

17 minutes

Bremerton Naval Shipyard to McChord Air Base

79 miles

39 miles

1 hour 50 minutes

55 minutes

Tacoma to Port Orchard

91 miles

21 miles

2 hours

30 minutes

Tacoma to Bremerton

90 miles

30 miles

2 hours

40 minutes

Tacoma to Port Angeles

152 miles

115 miles

3 hours 25 minutes

2 hours 33 minutes

Peninsula residents felt equally enthusiastic
about a Narrows Bridge. From the time of the first white settlement
of the area, they wanted a closer connection with their more prosperous
neighbors in Tacoma. Business and civic leaders promoted the benefits
of better opportunities for trade with the more populated eastern
shore of the Sound.

The Problems: Money and That Ferry

Proponents of a Narrows Bridge justified spending
millions of dollars for such a project by explaining that
the cost could be repaid by tolls. But, the Peninsula had a small
population. Demand for travel to and from the area did not offer
a very strong incentive until after the mid-1930s. Even then, federal
officials doubted the numbers presented by Tacoma and Peninsula
promoters. With the onset of the Great Depression after 1929, the
hard times of the 1930s proved an even more difficult hurdle for
bridge enthusiasts.

The existing ferry service remained a serious
issue that delayed realization of a Narrows Bridge. Federal
officials believed that Mitchell Skansie's ferries met local travel
and commerce demands. More important, the contract held by Skansie's
Washington Navigation Company since 1926 raised an even greater
barrier. The exclusive franchise that promised Skansie "no
competition" would not expire until 1936. Any bridge deal had
to include funds to buy out Skansie.

The end of 1936 brought renewed hope
to Tacoma and Peninsula bridge promoters. Skansie's ferry contract
ended. Also, increased funding for public works projects under President
Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" held new promise for
finding the money to build a Tacoma Narrows Bridge.